San Jacinto, CA Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Chapter 3.20 of the San Jacinto Municipal Code is the Uniform Transient Occupancy Tax ordinance of the city. Section 3.20.030 sets the rate at eight percent of the rent charged by the operator, and the tax is a debt owed by the transient to the city, extinguished only by payment to the operator or to the city. If the rent is paid in installments, a proportionate share of the tax is paid with each installment. The unpaid tax comes due when the transient stops occupying space in the hotel.

The definitions in § 3.20.020 decide who is covered. "Hotel" is any structure or portion of a structure occupied or intended or designed for occupancy by transients for dwelling, lodging or sleeping purposes, and the list includes inn, tourist home or house, motel, lodginghouse, roominghouse, apartment house, dormitory, public or private club, and mobile home or house trailer at a fixed location. A "transient" is a person who occupies, or is entitled to occupy, for thirty (30) consecutive calendar days or less, counting portions of days as full days. Chapter 3.20 does not use the words short-term rental, so coverage of any particular rental turns on that definition. "Rent" counts all consideration charged, with no deduction.

Operators register with the tax administrator within thirty (30) days after commencing business and post the transient occupancy registration certificate in a conspicuous place (§ 3.20.050). They show the tax separately from the rent and give each transient a receipt, and cannot advertise that the tax will be absorbed or not added to the rent (§ 3.20.060). Returns and payment are due on or before the last day of each calendar month (§ 3.20.070), and records are kept for three years (§ 3.20.110). Federal and state officers on official business and certain foreign government officers are exempt, but only on a claim made under penalty of perjury when the rent is collected (§ 3.20.040).